Vancouver Courier January 28 2015

WEDNESDAY

January 28 2015 Vol. 106 No. 07

CITY LIVING 8

Hot chocolate and crickets STATE OF THE ARTS 18

Motherload of invention SPORTS 20

Young refs earn their stripes There’s more online at

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SALUTE TO THE CHIEF After almost eight years as head of the Vancouver Police Department, Police Chief Jim Chu announced Friday that he will retire in the spring. Now it’s up to Mayor Gregor Robertson and the Vancouver Police Board to find a successor. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Chu’s exit leaves ‘big shoes to fill’ Police chief’s tenure filled with gains and pains

Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

The day before Police Chief Jim Chu announced he will retire this spring from a 36-year career with the Vancouver Police Department, he sat down to lunch with a table of strangers in the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings.

Kelvin Bee, a residential school survivor, and Jasper Joseph, who has challenged authority since he was a kid, were two of Chu’s lunch mates. They all seemed to get along, despite the conflicting histories of the three men.

“I’ve got to commend the chief with taking a chance with our women who still might be in the [sex] trade and with people that are addicted with alcohol or drugs — some of them even coming in here under the influence,” Bee told the Courier after Chu left the table to lead a raffle draw for 80 of his guests at the fourth “Lunch with the Chief” at the Carnegie.

Eight other tables at the centre were

occupied by a mix of police officers and Downtown Eastside residents, all there to get to know each other, ask and answer tough questions and keep the conversation moving along well enough to encourage another lunch date.

It was Joseph’s second luncheon.

“I thought this was going to be one of those places where I was going to get uncomfortable,” he said after finishing his sandwich. “I don’t like people in authority. Whether they shake my hand or not, or smile, I have a hard time with it. I’ve been that way since I was a kid. But my emotions today are more different than they used to be. I can shake [a police officer’s] hand now and feel comfortable around them and not feel like they’re going to arrest me.”

It’s a revealing quote that Chu would consider a gain — a term he used at his news conference last Friday when asked about his legacy in the Downtown Eastside and whether his seven-and-a-half years of leadership has improved relationships between the VPD and residents.

With the bungling of the missing and murdered women investigation, the unprecedented ticketing of low-income residents for jaywalking and vending and incidents of police using excessive force on

residents, Chu has had to answer for his department’s failures and wrongdoing in the low-income neighbourhood.

“In policing, there’s never a time to declare victory,” he told reporters at the Cambie Street police station. “You’re always looking if you’re moving in the right direction. Are things improving at the right pace? And then, as you have a gain, you want to work harder to get more gains. So we’re going to continue to work with all our partners, including those in the Downtown Eastside, to assure them that we care about safety for every person in Vancouver.”

While observers of the 55-year-old Chu’s tenure as chief may point to his leadership during the 2010 Winter Olympics or his department’s response to the Stanley Cup riot in 2011 as hallmarks of his career, his record in the Downtown Eastside brings a more guarded reaction from residents and agencies who have watched the VPD leader’s moves in the community.

“We have a long way to go, but we’re taking steps forward and doing the work that needs to be done for safety in this community,” said Mona Woodward, former executive director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, as she left the luncheon.

Continued on page 12

A course University of B.C. arts student Rosemary Chen took in Grade 12 helped her see the big picture of sustainability.

“To understand the economic side of things, the social side of things, the political side of things as well as the environmental side of things,” the former Sir Winston Churchill student said.

The Vancouver School Board’s global sustainability course includes field visits to sustainability initiatives and companies that have improved their operations, and Chen said those experiences helped her recognize that sustainability isn’t a “far away in the future idea.”

Andrew Humphries, head teacher at Prince of Wales Mini School, started the course, which is heading into its third year in 2015-2016.

“Sustainability is the topic, is the issue of our time,” he said. “It is affecting and will affect virtually everything.”

The global sustainability course welcomes 30 Grade 11 and 12 students from across the district to examine sustainability through field studies, discussion and debate, film analysis, case studies and a six-month-long selfdirected action project. It’s a cross-curricular course that combines aspects of science, social studies and leadership.

“Young people are really aware that these issues are rising around them, and they want some factual information about, really, what is going on and then an ability to respond to that,” Humphries said.

“The content and delivery methods help students move from a narrative of doom and gloom to one of adventure and hope,” he told the Courier. “Because if you don’t look at it that way, it just becomes too depressing.”

Students toured the Village at False Creek with principal landscape architect Margot Long to learn about the sustainable design there. They’ve heard from Rashid Sumaila of the UBC Fisheries Centre about global oceans and fisheries economics, and from Daniel McLeod, immigration and citizenship lawyer, about human migration and refugees.

Continued on page 5

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W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

Ex-Vision Vancouver member Randy Helten and four other citizens launched a conflict of interest case Dec. 12 against Mayor Gregor Robertson (r) and Coun. Geoff Meggs (l). PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Mayor, Meggs resist attempted ejection

Lawyer argues audio recording is ‘hearsay’ Bob Mackin

bob@bobmackin.ca

Mayor Gregor Robertson and Coun. Geoff Meggs say the B.C. Supreme Court petition aimed at removing them from office is intended to damage them “politically and professionally under the protective cloak of absolute privilege.”

Ex-Vision Vancouver member Randy Helten and four other citizens launched the conflict of interest case Dec. 12, relying on a leaked recording of Meggs promising the city’s outside workers’ union on Oct. 14 that a re-elected Vision majority would not contract out work. About 40 members of CUPE Local 1004 voted at the same meeting to give Vision $34,000, which was matched by CUPE’s B.C. and national offices for a $102,000 sum.

“The petition and supporting affidavits contain false and defamatory allegations and innuendo,” states Robertson and Meggs’s Jan. 20 court filing. “The gravamen of the petitioner’s complaint is that the respondents are corrupt. More particularly, the petitioners allege that the respondents, as representatives of Vision, engaged in a ‘pay to play’ scheme with the (Local 1004) executive.”

The recording also captured a union member saying support for Vision “is not unconditional” and the donation was made to “carry favour with Vision in the

next round of negotiations.”

The city’s contract with 1,600 Local 1004 members expires at the end of 2015.

The petition asks for a judge to replace Robertson and Meggs with the next-highest vote-getters, NPA’s Kirk LaPointe for mayor and Ian Robertson for councillor, or to ban Robertson and Meggs from negotiating or voting on Local 1004’s next contract.

But Vision lawyer Bryan Baynham wants a judge to declare the clips inadmissible as hearsay, or second-hand evidence, at a scheduled Feb. 2 hearing. “The audio recording is the only factual evidence offered by the petitioners that could conceivably suggest impropriety by the respondents,” states the Jan. 20 application, which incorrectly said the union meeting was Oct. 12.

Hearsay, however, can be allowed if a judge deems it necessary and reliable.

Lawyer Jon Festinger, who is also an instructor at the Centre for Digital Media, told the Courier a pure audio recording can be more reliable than a witness.

“So what would you prefer, audio which is verbatim or video that is 100 per cent accurate or an individual witness account?” Festinger said. “I think the digital age is definitely changing the meaning of what’s the best evidence.”

A confidential source gave the Courier three digital audio files of the meeting totaling 77 minutes and 48 seconds on Oct. 14. Neither

Vision nor CUPE contested the authenticity of two clips that were posted with the story published Oct. 16. CUPE official Justin Schmid asked Oct. 21 by email for the clips, totaling 9:33, to be removed from YouTube, claiming breach of privacy. The Courier declined, citing public interest. On Nov. 13, two days before the election, CUPE convinced YouTube to remove the clips from its Canadian site. The file containing Meggs’s speech was reinstated.

In a Nov. 20 Courier story, Meggs did not deny his words on the recording: “I went to a meeting at the request of the union, I told them our position and they made a later decision without my presence that wound up supporting us.”

Robertson, in an Oct. 27 story, said Meggs “was just stating the obvious and our track record to date and commitment to date to continue with that practice.”

LaPointe called it a corrupt deal and Vision responded with a defamation lawsuit filed Nov. 6, the same day an internal poll claimed LaPointe was only four per cent behind Robertson. LaPointe called the Vision lawsuit a ploy to restrict freedom of speech.

On Nov. 15, Robertson and Vision retained their city council majority, but their party lost its majorities on park and school boards.

—with files from Mike Howell twitter.com/bobmackin

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News Proposed ‘origami’ tower goes before design panel Architects defend controversial design DEVELOPING STORY Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

Bruce Knapp admits he’s surprised by the recent onslaught of criticism directed the Waterfront “origami” Tower proposed for 555 West Cordova St. The 26-storey modern glass office highrise, proposed by Cadillac Fairview, is designed to sit next to the historic Waterfront Station and overhang part of the building. The Landing heritage building is on the other side. Critics, including Courier columnist Michael Geller, former city planner Ray Spaxman and heritage activists, have questioned the tower’s appearance, as well as its relationship to and proximity to the adjacent heritage buildings.

“Design always attracts discussion, but I think the level of criticism is quite unexpected,” Knapp told the Courier Monday.

Knapp is managing principal of B+H Architects’ Vancouver office.

Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture designed the tower, but as an international firm, it’s required to team up with a local collaborating firm on the project, which in this case is B+H Architects.

The project goes before the city’s Urban Design Panel Jan. 28, which Smith and Gill plan to attend. Brian Jackson, the city’s manager of planning and development, says if the UDP supports the application the city will set

The controversial Waterfront Tower proposed for 555 West Cordova St. goes before the Urban Design Panel Jan. 28. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

up a public open house before the application goes before the Development Permit Board in March.

(The UDP could also recommend a re-design.)

More than 100 people have already submitted feedback to the city about the project.

Knapp maintains the building responds to site conditions and the city’s guidelines, urban design objectives and overall development plans for this part of Vancouver.

He added that the design team has been working with city staff for more than a year to come up with an appropriate application and it’s going through all the proper reviews.

“I think the challenge that Smith and Gill were brought into is it’s a challenging site and it’s a significant design challenge to place a new office building in this part of the city,” Knapp said.

“The major thing that Adrian and Gordon are trying to achieve is how this tower comes down to the ground, comes down to the street and the plaza adjacent to what they also believe [are] significant heritage buildings on both sides. I don’t think the heritage buildings are being disregarded in any way. It’s really trying to figure out what’s the best solution for a tower that is taller than both of them to come down to the street.”

Jim Vasto, project manager for B+H, said that the tower “yields” to the heritage building and bends out of its way to form what’s been described as the origami shape.

While the look of the building has been debated, Knapp said it’s designed to deviate from a traditional shaft-like imposing tower.

“If you look over at the plaza building at the foot of Hastings, there’s a large concrete building with openings. It’s very imposing. Adjacent buildings are large, masonry brick buildings with large openings. So something that was not glassy or quite transparent, I think, would be even more imposing for the size of these [heritage]

buildings. So, obviously the decision to go with a very high performance, custom façade of glass was the approach and then to try and work all the sides of the building to really not make a big shaft tower. That’s why you can see all the facades push out and then pull back in — so an almost sculpted or faceted tower was thought to be the answer… I think [Gordon and Gill] were trying to get a distinctive and appropriate building expression from all the vantage points.”

Knapp believes some of the negative reaction is based on a lack of understanding about what the city is trying to accomplish in the area through new

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Although the Vancouver Heritage Commission supported the project at its meeting in early December, the two members who voted against it, Anthony Norfolk and Michael Kluckner, remain critical.

Norfolk says he’s received support from the public about his criticism of the project and that the common theme has been the failure of the proposed tower to relate respectfully to the station and The Landing.

Vasto said a disproportionate amount of negative comments have been printed considering the majority of heritage commission members supported the project.

While some question whether a building should overhang a building, Knapp said the overhang takes place quite high up in the air.

“It’s not a situation where the building is trying to look like it’s landing on another one or is built out of another adjacent building,” he said. “And that’s a condition we’ve seen in a lot of buildings in Vancouver where heritage buildings are stripped down, slapped up against the side of another building and people call it a day. So that overhang is of some discussion.

It’s not something that would be typically done, but given the constraints on other parts of the site to achieve the roadway down to the waterfront, to achieve generosity in the roadway width and building setbacks, it’s resulted in this. And it seemed to be acceptable enough to make the submission on that basis.” twitter.com/naoibh

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W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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News

St. John’s School is a JK-Grade 12 co-ed, non-denominational, independent, urban, IB World School committed to graduating confident learners who pursue their goals with passion, integrity and respect for others within the global community.

Former student Rosemary Chen and Prince of Wales teacher Andrew Humphries visited the Camosun bog Monday morning. Humphries started the cross-curricular course, which examines sustainability through field studies, debate, film analysis, case studies and a six-month-long self-directed project.

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Course favours ‘hope and adventure’ to doom and gloom Continued from page 1 Students of the global sustainability course started and continued Kids for Climate Action, have worked to conserve a species of frog in the Fraser Valley and have shared what they’ve learned with elementary school students. They can receive course credit for independent learning that includes attending a film, participating in a conference or reading a book related to sustainability.

Global sustainability is an off-timetable course that runs from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays at Prince of Wales, in Kerrisdale, with field trips some Saturdays

and Sundays. It is a fullyear elective course that Humphries would like to see roll out at every school.

drawing together students that have similar interests and then sending them back to their schools to do

To learn more about our IB Diploma Programme and Merit Scholarships, we invite you to visit our website and attend our IB Information Session.

“Sustainability is the topic, is the issue of our time, it is affecting and will affect virtually everything.”

— Andrew Humphries “But having said that, part of the fun of the course is that we get kids from different schools rubbing shoulders, sharing ideas and then going back to their schools to do some initiatives and such,” he said.

“They key for me is

great things,” Humphries said. “And drawing together experts from around Vancouver to rub shoulders with these kids, as well.”

The application deadline for the global sustainability course is Feb. 27. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

News

Grocery execs push for clarity around ground rules for alcohol sales Glen Korstrom

gkorstrom@biv.com

The B.C. government’s start date for allowing grocers to sell alcohol is just over two months away, but consumers will be disappointed if they expect to add

beer, wine or spirits to grocery carts starting April 1.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen until the government tells us, and they haven’t really been that clear,” said Jim Pattison Group (JPG) president Glen Clark.

“They’ve said that grocery stores can sell wine, which we’re delighted with, but we don’t know how.”

JPG owns Save-OnFoods, Overwaitea, Nesters Market, Buy-Low Foods and Meinhardt Fine Foods.

Attorney General Suzanne

Anton has outlined two possible ways that grocers can sell beer, wine or spirits. The first would be a store-withina-store model whereby a grocery would have to be at least 10,000 square feet and have a separate section designated for alcohol sales.

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The second would require a grocer to apply for a licence to carry B.C. wine on store shelves. But Anton has yet to detail how many of the in-aisle licences will be available or how a grocer gets one.

Clark said the storewithin-a-store model would be virtually impossible to execute because government regulations, with few exceptions, allow it only if the grocery store is at least one kilometre from a liquor outlet.

“There’ll be very few grocery stores selling wine if the geographic restriction is maintained,” he said.

Choices Markets CEO Ishkandar Ahmed agreed.

He said that only two of his seven stores are more than one kilometre from a liquor store. One of those is less than 10,000 square feet and therefore too small to sell alcohol.

City regulations ban alcohol sales at the other location, on West 16th Avenue.

The City of Vancouver requires all alcohol retailers to be at least 100 metres from a school or church.

The Choices on West 16th Avenue is across the street from a church.

“I couldn’t say for sure what we’re going to be able to do,” said Thrifty Foods communications manager Erin Coulson. “It seems that there are a few steps that need to be done

[by the government to clarify the process].”

She estimated that only one of Thrifty Foods’ 26 stores would likely be both large enough and far enough away from a liquor store to be eligible to sell alcohol using the storewithin-a-store model.

Even then, Thrifty Foods would have to buy and relocate a liquor licence from another business that already has a licence, which could be an expensive proposition.

Coulson is “excited” by the in-aisle option as well but said there needs to be more clarity on how to get a licence.

Add to this a legal wrinkle.

Wine industry lawyer Mark Hicken said that Victoria’s plan to expand preferential treatment for B.C. wines beyond the current network of 21 stores which exclusively sell B.C. Vintners Quality Alliance products would contravene the CanadaEuropean Community Wine and Spirits Agreement.

“I don’t think the government’s plan is tradeagreement-compliant,” he said. “You’d be opening Canada up to a potential trade agreement challenge, which I think we would lose. That could mean financial penalties.” twitter.com/GlenKorstrom

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Choices Group is buying the Drive Organics independent grocer on Commercial Drive for an undisclosed amount and plans to rebrand the store as a Choices Markets location within a few months.

“We bought the store,” said CEO Ishkandar Ahmed. “It will take us a bit of time to rebrand it but eventually it will be a Choices Markets store.”

The addition will increase the Vancouver-based grocer’s store-count to eight locations, seven in Metro Vancouver and one in Kelowna.

It also operates a rice bakery and a flower store that is connected with one of its Vancouver stores.

Ahmed said he expected a Choices Market on Commercial Drive would do well because it is a well-known brand in Metro Vancouver.

“It’s like with Starbucks.

Customers know what they’re getting and they know that we stand for certain quality for our fresh produce, our deli and our meat offerings.”

Ahmed agreed the store’s purchasing costs could go down because of Choices Markets’ larger economies of scale. He doubted that it would mean price cuts, however.

“Prices are pretty low on Commercial Drive,” Ahmed said. “It’s a very competitive area.”

— Glen Korstrom

W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News Kwan gunning for Vancouver East

Long-running NDP MLA Jenny Kwan announced Jan. 25 at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre she will seek the federal NDP nomination in the Vancouver East riding long held by veteran MP Libby Davies.

Davies announced in December she will not run again after serving the riding since 1997.

Kwan, a former COPE city councillor, has represented Vancouver-Mount Pleasant in the B.C. legislature since 1996. Last month, NDP MLA Mabel Elmore also announced she is seeking the NDP nomination for Vancouver East. Elmore has represented Vancouver-Kensington since she was first elected in 2009.

Kwan’s public image took a hit last year after it was disclosed her thenhusband, Dan Small, had billed his employer, the non-profit PHS Community Services Society, nearly $35,000 in 2012 for trips to Disneyland, the United Kingdom and Vienna she joined him on. The couple have since filed for divorce and she has repaid the money.

A date hasn’t yet been announced for the nomination meeting.

Port defends drivers decision

Port Metro Vancouver is defending a decision that

has left approximately 550 port truckers looking for work elsewhere.

On Jan. 23, the port authority released a list of 68 trucking companies it had given licenses to in order to access port terminals. Those companies represented 1,450 trucks, out of the entire fleet of roughly 2,000.

In a press release, Port Metro Vancouver says limiting the number of trucks was necessary to prevent persistent undercutting.

“For years, the local container trucking sector that serves Port Metro Vancouver has been unstable and drivers have found it increasingly difficult to make a living,” stated the port authority.

The move follows a March 2014 truckers’ strike that saw Vancouver-area port terminals paralyzed for a month.

Truckers went on strike then to protest long wait times at terminals and low wages.

The port said it used a broad range of criteria to make its recent decision, including the ability to pay the charges to fund the provincial auditing program, Port Metro Vancouver’s costs, whether the company was able to provide a compliance bond and insurance, and to meet environmental standards.

Companies that didn’t make the cut can meet with Port Metro Vancouver officials to review why they weren’t successful, according to the port.

Truckers represented by

Unifor have been unhappy with a wage structure the B.C. government introduced in December and are currently in talks with the province.

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UBC faculty voting on fossil fuel divestment

UBC faculty will vote in an online referendum being held by the UBC Faculty Association this week and next. The results will be released Feb. 9.

UBC students voted a year ago to support divestment.

Currently, the fund has more than $100 million invested in fossil fuel companies, according to UBC C350, a group of UBC professors who are politically active in environmental issues.

“If these two groups vote for divestment, then the board of governors is obliged to consider fossil fuel divestment,” said George Hoburg, a political science professor at UBC who teaches energy policy and has been campaigning for divestment.

The UBC vote follows other successful divestment campaigns at North American universities, including Concordia University in Montreal. After students voted to divest at Concordia, the university announced it would create a $5 million sustainable investment fund.

In November, the board of governors at Dalhousie University in Halifax decided against divestment.

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Vancouver City Council intends to consider a heritage property tax exemption by-law for 9 West Cordova Street pursuant to its authority under section 396A of the Vancouver Charter.

The development permit application was processed through the Heritage Building Rehabilitation Program to restore the designated heritage building in exchange for incentives, including a property tax exemption. The legal description of the property is: PID: 009-354-492: Lot B Block 2 Old Granville Townsite Plan 10753.

The proposed exemption would be for a value of $358,680 or a period of 10 years, whichever comes first. If the City issues the occupancy permit before October 31 in any given year, the exemption will begin January 1 of the following year. But, if it is issued after October 31, it will begin January 1 of the year after the following year.

Council may adopt the by-law 30 days after the notice is published unless more than 1/20 of the electors petition Council to obtain the assent of the electors to the by-law.

The draft by-law can be viewed starting January 28, 2015 at Vancouver City Hall, City Clerk’s Department, 453 West 12th Avenue, Third floor, Vancouver, BC. DEADLINE FOR PETITIONS: Electors may submit petitions until February 27, 2015 at 4:30 pm to Zlatan Jankovic, Heritage Planner, City of Vancouver, 453 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Y 1V4 or by email to zlatan.jankovic@vancouver.ca Visit: vancouver.ca Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

Community 1

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1. Mink Chocolates barista Mason Lam prepares a double order of “Don’t Bug Me,” which features a sprinkling of dried crickets. Mink is one of 21 shops participating in the fifth annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival that runs until Feb. 14. 2. Carolyn Jack puts some time aside Saturday afternoon to take her “Flu Shot.” 3. Even children didn’t shy away from eating crickets. 4. In keeping with the fun, owner Marc Lieberman supplied a sharps container for customers wanting to recycle the giant syringe their “Flu Shot” drink was delivered in.

See photo gallery online at vancourier.com. PHOTOS REBECCA BLISSETT

Hot Chocolate Festival abuzz with insects and other unusual concoctions Downtown Eastside fundraiser encourages chocolate lovers to drink outside their comfort zone

CITY LIVING Rebecca Blissett

rvblissett@gmail.com

Depending on your mood or, more likely, your adventurous spirit, there’s a drink made from a mixture of Baileys and white chocolate ganache delivered to your mouth from a comically giant syringe.

Or, if you prefer, hot chocolate in a more civilized plain old mug topped with a sprinkling of insects on a spiral of whipped cream.

People lined up at Mink Chocolates’ downtown location Saturday afternoon, and the orders were split down the middle between the “Flu Shot” and “Don’t Bug Me,” the store’s respective feature drinks for the fifth annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival.

Store owner and drink creator Marc Lieberman has the ideal creative recipe for an entrepreneurial spirit — not being afraid to try new things and having a genuine great sense of humour.

Mink’s festival drink last year was the “Paula Deen White Trash Train Wreck” — a concoction he cheerfully admits was “disgusting” with its ingredients of sickly-sweet and slowpouring condensed milk topped with potato chips.

Yet people came in long after the special ended to order the drink.

“I’m telling you, we couldn’t make them fast enough during the festival,” he said. “There were crestfallen faces when they found out it was no longer being made.”

The idea of eating freerange crickets on top of “Don’t Bug Me” doesn’t

appeal to everybody (yes, Lieberman gets a kick out of watching those who dawdle with their decision-making outside the store’s windows), but there’s more to it than the potential gross-out factor.

Lieberman usually gets his ideas while dreaming, waking up in the middle of the night and scribbling them down on a sticky note.

“If I can read what I wrote in the morning, I act on it. If I can’t read what I’ve written, I throw them out.”

Serving crickets, however, came from the mailbox.

The University of B.C.’s alumni magazine is delivered to Lieberman’s house compliments of his former downstairs tenant who hasn’t updated her mailing address.

The issue that drew his interest featured 2010 graduate Andrew Brentano, who had moved to the States to pursue a life promoting edible

insects. Lieberman found the story fascinating, especially from an environmental and nutritional standpoint. Bug people say that insect farms are less land-dependent than conventional livestock farms and that bugs are nutritious with protein content comparable to meat and fish (not to mention FDA-approved).

So Lieberman contacted an insect farmer in the States and, in December, ordered what he thought would be enough crickets to last through the Jan. 17 to Feb. 14 festival. He ran out days in, and his supplier had to drive 100 miles to the nearest FedEx depot in Texas to ship more crickets overnight.

“They taste a bit nutty but they don’t taste like much,” said Lieberman. “Crunchy.

The legs and wings get stuck between your teeth. That’s interesting.”

Also interesting, in that

same sarcastic tone, is that somebody complained to Vancouver Coastal Health about the sharps container Lieberman had playfully set up on the napkin station to give customers the option of recycling their giant, plastic syringes.

The container is set up on the same surface as an advertisement for the festival, as well as a stack of walking maps that also indicate the festival is a fundraiser for the Downtown Eastside women’s job training program of the PHS Community Services Society through East Van Roasters. (Incidentally, Mink Chocolates and its “Paula Deen White Trash Train Wreck” came in at number one last year.)

Mink was the second stop of the day for Carolyn Jack and RJ Hatch. They’d been to Bella Gelateria

earlier for the “Earl Goes Boom” white hot chocolate steeped in Earl Grey tea and lavender, and later planned on sampling East Van Roasters’ “Monkey Manna” made with Peruvian chocolate, peppercorn and vanilla.

But first, the Flu Shot.

“It’s sort of like pudding,” mused Hatch. “With Baileys,” added Jack. “I thought you’d be up for the cricket!”

“I need to save the room,” said Hatch, though it was unclear if he didn’t have room or he simply couldn’t stomach the idea.

After all, more women have ordered “Don’t Bug Me” than men, said Lieberman who summed up his creative efforts: “I like to get people out of their comfort zones and get them to do something different.” twitter.com/rebeccablissett

W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Cityframe

HOP, SKIP AND A JUMP After the weekend’s torrential showers, walkers of all ages hit the seawall in Yaletown Sunday to soak up the sun. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

Opinion

Duelling politicians are all a-Twitter

‘Awkward’ building would be bad fit

Les Leyne Columnist lleyne@timescolonist.com

Michael Geller Columnist michaelarthurgeller@gmail.com

One of the best things about social media is that it’s a forum for politicians to continue goading each other during the off-season when the legislature isn’t sitting. They only get a scant few months to go face to face during sessions. But through the miracle of Twitter, they can keep the argument going long after the house adjourns. Through the weekends and late into the night as well, for that matter.

Nanaimo-Cowichan NDP MLA Doug Routley has been leading the charge lately. He’s taken the requisite number of digs at the B.C. Liberal government, of course. The day before Christmas Eve, he noted: “Balanced #bcpoli budget? Nope,jst anthr lie. Robbed $1bil from BCHydro,despite losses,forcing BCHydro in2mor debt&higher rate incrses.” (Those aren’t typos, it’s just compressed writing.)

The same day, there was this plaintive question: “Have the BCLiberals ever told a single truth? I can make a long list of their lies, but seriously, can anyone point to a single truth?”

The intriguing thing about his Twitter feed lately, however, is his focus on Oak Bay-Gordon Head Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver.

Routley is listed as the deputy critic of forestry and community services, but in social-media world, he’s more a watchdog on Weaver.

Last month, Weaver was quoted after the Site C dam announcement as saying hydroelectric qualifies as green power.

Routley tweeted: “Gosh, amazing how @AJWVictoriaBC can leap ovr principles w a singl bound.”

After Weaver tweeted a news story about the Pope going Green, Routley responded with: “That’s (g)reen, not (G)reen...2go (G)reen by ur standard, he wld have 2 dclare hmslf as truthfully being jewish :)” It was obviously meant as a joke, albeit a laboured one. But when he tried to explain the joke was based on Weaver’s perceived hypocrisy, Weaver responded: “I’m beginning to think u r the only 1 who understands ur tweets Doug.”

Routley shot back: “Only u apparently knew what u meant when u ran as a progressive.”

The dogfight is viewed by some as

further proof the NDP are worried about the Greens. But some of it just stems from personal differences. Routley said he was talking to a dignitary last year in the hallway and Weaver interrupted him with an objection to something he said in a speech. He viewed that as rude, and the argument was on. Weaver said he just pointed out Routley was wrong on some facts.

After Weaver started a petition to cut MSP premiums, Routley launched: “Mor hypocrisy frm Weaver.Votes4 2Lib bdgts w phony balance on back of fee incrses incl MSP&now calls4abolishmnt ofMSP prems.”

Routley’s past weekend on Twitter was also inadvertently revealing. He sent a tweet Saturday to NDP Leader John Horgan’s chief of staff, John Heaney, with an intriguing partial reference that’s open to interpretation. He mentioned a ferry worker as “my guy. We can plant anything we need to through him. He does a lot of mudline research and also creates memes.”

He also noted some of the ferry workers’ memes (generally, graphic concepts designed to be spread easily) are actually Routley’s, but “not what I necessarily wanted to own.”

There’s an indication he thought the message was being sent privately. It was deleted from his feed soon after.

But it sparked some speculation about what’s being planted, what are the ideas Routley wanted spread without being seen to own, and most exciting of all — what is “mudline research?”

Routley said he meant it as research to counter what he views as erroneous attacks on NDP hypocrisy by (guess who?) Weaver.

Horgan shrugged off the spat, noting Twitter is a “sensitive beast,” but backing Routley, who’s “his own man.”

Weaver produced some examples from the “mudline” on Monday, a bunch of posters from Facebook featuring his face and text attacking his stands on various issues.

No doubt B.C. Liberal social-media savants are engaged in some fascinating behind-the-scenes manoeuvres as well.

But you don’t normally see it referred to in public.

The legislature resumes Feb. 10, so they can get back to face-to-face arguments twitter.com/leyneles

The week in num6ers...

10

In thousands of dollars, the amount of money the park board spent to replace 17 maple trees illegally cut down by an unknown person Jan. 6 on West 29th Avenue.

6

In the past 10 years, the number of times city council has unsuccessfully petitioned the B.C. government requesting to be allowed to make its own rules around campaign finance.

36

The number of years Chief Jim Chu has spent as a member of the Vancouver Police Department. Chu announced his retirement Friday.

The CPR Station has long been one of my favourite Vancouver buildings.

For 16 years I had my offices on the second floor and watched the waterfront transform around me. I often walked past the adjacent parking lot wondering what might one day be built there.

Perhaps this is why I was so shocked a few weeks ago when I saw an illustration in the Vancouver Courier of a proposed new office tower to replace the parking lot.

It did not fit in. It looked all wrong.

Many years ago, I participated in the planning and rezoning of the property immediately north of the station. It comprised two parcels bisected by a lane. In order to create one taller building, we transferred the building mass that could have been built along Hastings Street across the lane to Cordova Street.

In return for rezoning approval, we proposed a public plaza at Seymour and Hastings Streets and raised a portion of the building on columns to minimize view blockage of the station.

Unfortunately, Narod Developments, the company for which I worked, went into receivership and another firm took over.

While I never liked their shiny chrome design, I did like the concept of a public space on Hastings and the greenery that was planted on the buildings.

I mention this since, in September 2014, the city rezoned this public plaza for a 25-storey office building. The floor space ratio (FSR), which is a measure of the building size in relation to the site area, increased from .09 to 24.34, almost three times the permitted downtown zoning.

City planners recommended approval since they claimed no one was using the plaza and council wanted new office building development.

It may be noteworthy that the firm of architects that designed this building is also associated with the proposed building on the CPR station parking lot, along with Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. The latter are world-renowned architects, having designed the tallest building in the world in Dubai and what will be a 3,300 foot building in

5

The soon-to-be number of Choices Markets outlets in Vancouver after the upscale grocery chain purchased Drive Organics on Commercial Drive for an undisclosed sum.

Saudi Arabia.

So why do I find their design for the building next to the station so objectionable?

Let me begin by declaring I like modern buildings juxtaposed with historic buildings. During my travels I have seen many wonderful modern additions to heritage buildings and new buildings built beside them.

My fundamental problem with this design is that it is neither an architecturally pleasing addition to the station, nor a complementary new building beside it.

With its contrived geometric shapes at the street level and first few floors where it almost touches the heritage building, it looks and feels both awkward and disrespectful.

The building also feels too big for its site and does not keep Vancouver’s tradition of respecting the pedestrian at street level. This is why former director of planning Ray Spaxman called the building “a horror.”

I think he’s right.

I suspect city planners know this building design is not as good as it could be. I am told one of the reasons it is so jammed up against the station is that city engineers insisted upon a greater separation from the historic Landing building for a future roadway.

A second reason is the building has been squeezed by a required view corridor of the mountains from Queen Elizabeth Park.

Personally, I would relax the requirement for this distant view corridor if it would result in improved views at the street level, along with a more sympathetic relationship between the new and old buildings, and a more slender building shape.

Alternatively, I would encourage the city to grant the developer approval to transfer some of the building density allowed on this site to another site.

This afternoon (Jan. 28), the city’s Urban Design Panel will review the current proposal. If it supports the design, the public will have an opportunity to see the plan at an open house before it goes before the Development Permit Board.

If the panel does not support the design, it will be back to the drawing board.

I hope it will be the latter. twitter.com/michaelgeller

2

The number of confirmed NDP candidates seeking to replace Libby Davies as MP for Vancouver East. MLAs Jenny Kwan and Mable Elmore are both seeking a new job.

1

The number of fired bullets caught between the teeth of Scottish magician Rob Drummond during his show Bullet Catch running until Feb. 7 on Granville Island.

W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Inbox Tech teacher a class act To the editor:

Re: “Student developing videogame for visually impaired,’ Jan. 16.

I was a previous student of Ms. Ali. I worked though Programming 8-12, Networking 11 and various other tech programs at Killarney. By far, the best knowledge retention I have is from Ms. Ali, and the practices she taught me I use every day.

Since graduating, I have acquired a Business Technology position working with servers, production environments and network infrastructures. I was able to learn the spectrum of technology — from setup of desktops to server-side knowledge to Flash animation to game design. She really knows how to teach it all — and well.

Michael Jang, via Comments section

Assailing the taxi industry To the editor:

CO U R I E R A R C H I V E S T H I S W E E K I N H I S T O R Y

West End store firebombed

Jan. 27, 2005: The Burrard Corner Store at 1010 Burnaby St. suffered serious damage after someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the front window.

Although the fire it started was small, the flames triggered the sprinklers, and water caused extensive damage to the building and contents of the convenience store. No suspect was ever identified and police said there is no reason to believe it was a targeted attack. “It’s a random act at this point,” said VPD spokesperson Const. Sarah Bloor. One other deliberately set fire also occurred that night but it was in south Vancouver in a parked car.

First Gung Haggis Fat Choy held

Jan. 28, 1998: Simon Fraser University student Todd Wong, a.k.a. Toddish McWong, hosts a private dinner party for 16 friends intended to celebrate Vancouver’s Scottish and Chinese cultural heritage and cuisine as well as mark both Robbie Burns Day and the beginning of the Chinese New Year. The annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy event went on to become a major mainstay of the city’s social calendar and has spread to other cities in the Pacific Northwest. In 2005, the dinner moved to Floata, the largest Chinese restaurant in the country, although the Vancouver event has been postponed this year for undisclosed reasons.

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Re: “It’s time to fix our broken taxi system,” Jan. 21.

New York has nearly three times as many cabs per capita as Metro Vancouver. On top of this, Uber has a huge presence in New York, as do Lyft and other ride sharing services. New York also has a sophisticated public transit system with numerous train lines, an extensive bus system, and aquatic transport options.

What we have in Metro Vancouver, and B.C. generally, is a ridiculous protection system that ensures an astronomical price for cab licenses on the grey market by restricting the supply to the extent that taxis are next to useless at peak times — which is of course when we need them the most.

I hold the opinion that the only beneficiary of our current regime are the cab license owners. Drivers, whether they are leasing a license or driving as an employee, get shorted because the paucity of cabs overall means people don’t even think about using a taxi.

If there were more taxis, there would be more drivers and more riders. More revenue overall. But what would definitely drop is the value of the cab license on the grey market, and that would threaten $400M of capital held by the license holders today.

The solution? Depends on who you want to benefit. I think our licensing regime should be adjusted to benefit the traveling public, not the taxi license holders. There should be no problem re-jigging the licensing system to enable

a much larger number of licensed drivers — whether they are driving cabs or Uber cars — without sacrificing the safety of the public in any measurable way.

Rockerguy, via Comments section

‘Barbaric’ term under debate To the editor:

Re: “‘Barbaric practices’ legislation called racist,” Jan. 21.

I think ‘barbaric’ is a well-chosen term. It lets new immigrants know that some specific practices are not just illegal in Canada. It lets new immigrants know that those practices are taboo.

Practicing them will not only get you in trouble in the eyes of the law but also in the eyes of your neighbours. Canada has a culture all its own and it is using this term as it has always been used: to denote a practice that makes its practitioners anathema in the culture.

Rilvis, via Reddit ••• The term “barbaric” is offensive as hell and does not belong in any law.

TaylorS1986, via Reddit

Homeowners hampered by heritage bylaws

To the editor: Re: “Heritage, land use studies on 2015 planning agenda,” Jan. 21.

That is great news except the city’s bylaws are still strict when it comes to maintaining, upgrading and bringing to code these old houses. Bringing a 100-year-old house to conform with today’s code can result in a hefty bill that outweighs the actual value of the house.

For “the vast majority of Vancouver” to look exactly the same 10, 20, 30 years from now, the city has to relax its bylaws for older houses and allow them to exist in their “as is layout” that is livable space, basement suite, ceiling height, staircases, etc. with minor changes so as to ensure safety and allow homeowners to truly maintain the houses within a reasonable budget.

Homeowners who own an old house live in fear that one day if they need to do the simplest upgrade/renovation that they will have to go through the city; which may very well result in a home inspection that may burden the homeowner to bring conformity to other upgrades and/or additions that were done over the years by whomever owned the house many years ago.

A Vancouver Homeowner, via Comments section

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

Feature

Relationship with Downtown Eastside

Police Chief Jim Chu hosted a luncheon at the Carnegie Centre last Thursday which began with a prayer from aboriginal leader Annie Johnston. Jasper Joseph and Kelvin Bee (above) shared a J table with Chu. PHOTOS DAN TOULGOET

Could a run at federal politics be in the cards for outgoing chief?

Continued from page 1 “That’s why there was such outrage down here before because nothing was being done.”

Neighbourhood watch

Chu’s commitment to improve relationships in the Downtown Eastside was evident more than four years ago when officers and women from the neighbourhood created Sisterwatch, an initiative aimed at preventing violence against women.

Woodward is co-chairperson of Sisterwatch but pointed out the crime prevention network probably wouldn’t have formed had it not been for a tragedy. Her niece, 22-year-old Ashley Machiskinic, fell to her death Sept. 15, 2010 from a room at the back of the Regent Hotel.

The death led to Woodward and a group of women occupying the then-police headquarters at 312 Main St. to pressure Chu and his officers to investigate what they believed to be a murder.

Chu called and attended a town hall meeting, which led to the creation of Sisterwatch and regular meetings with residents. The luncheons, which began last year, are an extension of those initiatives. Investigators, meanwhile, continue to treat Machiskinic’s death as a “sudden death” file, according to the chief.

“The positive thing is that Ashley didn’t die in vain, right?” Woodward said of the community’s push for better relations with the VPD. “That from

her death something beautiful happened.”

At his news conference Friday, Chu said the work of Sisterwatch has led to witnesses and victims of crime confiding in police and sharing information that has helped capture criminals. In another first for the VPD, the chief and several police officers have been regular participants in the Missing Women Memorial March held in February each year.

But with steps forward have come steps backward.

Back in June 2010, one of Chu’s officers, Const. Taylor Robinson, was captured on video footage shoving Sandy Davidsen, who has cerebral palsy, to the ground on East Hastings. Robinson, who had graduated from the Justice Institute six months before the incident, was suspended without pay for six days. He claimed Davidsen was going for his gun but later apologized for the incident and was transferred to another district.

Chu reacted immediately, imposing a mandatory policy that stated rookies would no longer be deployed in the Downtown Eastside. The new policy requires only officers with a minimum of two years’ experience to be considered to work the beat in the neighbourhood.

Watching Chu and the department closely over the years in the Downtown Eastside has been the Pivot Legal Society, which has lodged complaints against officers and called for policy changes, including

stopping the ticketing of low-income residents.

Pivot lawyer Douglas King, who acted on behalf of Davidsen in the Robinson case, said Chu may have built better relationships with service providers in the Downtown Eastside but confrontations between police and officers continue.

“If you’re still giving out tickets for jaywalking, if you’re still hounding people as they walk down the street, you’re still not going to improve that relationship,” King told the Courier.

“So I think there’s a lack of understanding of what the core issue is.”

That said, King added, the legal society saw some positive moves by the VPD under Chu’s leadership, including backing off on the enforcement of sex trade workers to focus on prevention of violence. The VPD continues to be supporters of the Insite supervised drug injection site, too, King noted.

King acknowledged one of the first moves Chu made when he became chief was to have breakfast with former Pivot leaders John Richardson and David Eby, where he apologized for officers’ conduct that led to 52 complaints against the VPD. “Our relationship with the VPD is so much better under chief Chu than it was under [Police Chief Jamie] Graham,” King said. (Graham once told the Courier that Pivot had no credibility as an organization). “It was actively hostile with chief Graham. It’s been a world of difference and we hope it’s going to stay that way

with whoever is going to replace him.”

Public relations

Chu’s work outside the Downtown Eastside, particularly during the 2010 Winter Olympics, may be more familiar to people living in other parts of the city and across the country.

Using a so-called meetand-greet style of policing, which arguably saw more cops at any time in the force’s history pose for photographs with tourists, the VPD welcomed hundreds of thousands of people to the city during the Winter Games. There were few skirmishes, although there were protests and arrests.

Chu’s non-aggressive approach to the Occupy protest at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011 and last year’s Oppenheimer Park tent city, where campers eventually left both properties without a clash with police, earned high praise from Mayor Gregor Robertson and civil liberties’ watchdogs.

But the recreational hockey player’s biggest test came in June 2011 when the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Boston Bruins at Rogers Arena. Hundreds of people went on a rampage downtown, burning vehicles, looting stores and assaulting police officers. Chu and his department were criticized for allowing the riot to happen, although many people thanked the VPD for the work they did that night, covering a cruiser in yellow sticky thank-you notes the next day and overwhelm-

ing VPD email inboxes and mailboxes with well wishes.

“We assured the citizens of Vancouver that we would hold the rioters accountable,” said Chu, recalling the fallout from the riot. “I know there was some criticism about us taking some time. As I said, we want do it fast, we want to do it right but if we couldn’t do both, we would do it right. I think time has vindicated our decision to do it right. We’re over 300 people charged. That’s the largest number of people charged out of one incident in Canadian history.”

That same year, Chu was rocked by the embarrassing and shocking news that one of his own officers was charged with selling marijuana. At the time, Chu told the Courier, it was his worst day on the job. Const.

Peter Hodson was fired and served time in prison.

“It was a bad day but then it was a good day,” he said at the time. “The bad day was one officer violated the trust we placed in him. The good day was 30 other officers said they would investigate, appear in court, no problem. They were resourceful, energetic, committed and they got significant amounts of evidence to prove that he was a rogue cop.”

Robertson, who joined Chu at Friday’s news conference, credited the chief and his leadership for the steady drop in crime across the city, pointing out how police diffused a gang war in 2008 and 2009. Property crime continues to plummet and homicides are at an alltime low, Robertson added.

W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Feature

remainschiefconcernforVPD’stopcop

“He and his team have achieved in succeeding again and again in achieving remarkable successes for our city,” said the mayor, who doubles as chairperson of the police board, which conducts annual performance reviews of the chief.

Robertson applauded the chief’s ongoing efforts to shine the light on the mental health crisis in Vancouver, where police are often the first responders to incidents involving people in need of treatment for their illnesses.

In recent years, the mayor and the chief have joined together to lobby the provincial and federal governments for better treatment, services and facilities for the mentally ill.

“A special thank you to Jim for his very brave leadership on mental health and I know his commitment on that is something that runs very deep in the Vancouver Police Department,” Robertson said.

Chu was hired under a police board led by thenmayor Sam Sullivan. It will now be up to Robertson and the board to choose a successor, which will include a Canadawide search for a candidate. The job pays well, with Chu earning more than $300,000 a year in recent years.

“These are big shoes to fill, there are some incredible candidates within the department,” the mayor said. “We look forward to them being in the mix and we’ll also open our doors across the country to make sure we’ve done everything to find the next best chief for Vancouver.”

Political football

So what’s Chu’s next move?

While Chu reasoned at the news conference that his early departure from his contract was to give one of his deputy chiefs a shot at the top job, Chu found himself deflecting questions about a possible federal run in politics.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do next,” said Chu, whose contract was set to expire in 2017.

“Other than some time off, I don’t know what the future entails. I didn’t want to be actively looking for the next step while I’m serving as chief.”

Chu acknowledged that political parties have approached him over the

years but he declined offers. He said he will give the same answer until he retires, which is scheduled for the spring but could be later if the police board hasn’t found his successor.

He is no stranger to politicians or how the world of politics works: As chief, he’s met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and led tours of the city and Downtown Eastside with federal ministers.

Chu has made contacts across the country as head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and lobbied for progressive changes related to marijuana possession such as ticketing instead of enforcement. And he’s made national news for a VPD-led program dubbed “Con-Air” that flies criminals back to cities where they are wanted on outstanding warrants.

His successor will likely need to possess the same campaigning style, which was directed by a police board that wanted Chu to speak out and be heard when issues such as the city’s mental health crisis is directly affecting policing; the VPD’s “Lost in Transition” report on the mental health crisis in 2008 was an example.

Several times during the news conference, Chu made it clear that the police board should look within the VPD’s senior ranks for the next chief.

Three deputy chiefs — Warren Lemcke, Adam Palmer and Doug LePard — work under Chu, who won the job in June 2007 after Jamie Graham retired. Chu noted his executive members are being actively recruited for jobs with other police departments.

“It would be a shame for this organization if one or two of these senior leaders left without the opportunity to compete to be police chief in the best city in the world in the best police agency in the world,” he said. “For me to step aside right now, it gives those talented senior executives who the police board have been directing me to develop, mentor and coach the opportunity to be a leader in this organization.”

In an interview following the news conference, LePard, 53, said he is thinking about pursuing the job.

The Courier was unable to reach Lemcke and Palmer before deadline.

Three deputy chiefs (above) work under Police Chief Jim Chu. They are Warren Lemcke, Doug LePard and Adam Palmer. One of them could be Chu’s successor. All four were on the job when the VPD was criticized for allowing 2011’s Stanley Cup riot (below) to happen, although many people thanked officers for their work that night, covering a cruiser in yellow sticky thank-you notes the next day and overwhelming VPD email inboxes and mailboxes with well wishes. PHOTOS DAN TOULGOET

“It’s a very important job and it’s not a decision that I would make lightly,” said LePard, who praised Chu for his leadership and relationships he established with people in the city, including in the Downtown Eastside where LePard joined the chief last Thursday at the luncheon.

Next chapter

Whether LePard or some other candidate becomes Chu’s successor, that person will undoubtedly have to sell the police board on how he or she will handle the challenges of policing the Downtown Eastside.

Chu appears to have set a precedent, with

no other chief in recent memory hosting regular lunches with sex trade workers, drug users and homeless people — and giving out door prizes such as Tim Horton’s gift cards, jewelry and rain ponchos to his guests.

Asked about this legacy as he left the luncheon,

Chu credited the work of fellow officers for the relationships they’ve established with residents.

Then he finished with this: “Well,” he said. “I’m around at a lot of other venues in the city, as well. But this is important for the police department.” twitter.com/Howellings

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

urbansenior Chinese arts, tea & trumpets COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Sandra Thomas

sthomas@vancourier.com

West Point Grey

West Point Grey Community Centre is offering a free falls prevention workshop with Kate Maliha.

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

The West Point Grey Community Centre is offering a free falls prevention workshop entitled “Walk Tall, Don’t Fall.”

The workshop, designed with baby boomers and older adults in mind, will teach participants proper

gait, posture and the body’s balance systems and provide an overview of how to effectively train for better balance both at home and at the gym.

The workshop, taught

by Kate Maliha from Love Your Age Fitness Inc., takes place Saturday, Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to noon.

To register, contact the West Point Grey Community Centre at 604-2578140 or visit vancouver.ca/ westpointgreyrec.

Oakridge

An art exhibit taking place at Oakridge Centre is the result of the first large-scale Chinese arts competition specifically featuring Canadian artists.

Last August, Katherine and John Chan of the International Arts Gallery, launched a call to artists across Canada to submit their work in one of three categories: Western painting, Chinese painting or calligraphy. Supported by the federal government of Canada, the Arts Bridge Competition endeavoured to connect Western and Chinese cultures and showcase both established and emerging artists.

A jury made up from several Asian community arts groups and members of the Federation of

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The Vancouver Public Library wants to demonstrate how one person’s trash is another’s treasure.

At a workshop dubbed “TRASHy Books,” participants will learn how to make a personal, oneof-a-kind notebook with materials typically thrown away. Using thrift store items and a bit of ingenuity, participants can make their book as romantic as a mixed tape or funny as a comic. Instruction and materials will be provided. The workshop runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 12, at the Central Library.

Also at the Central Library is an afternoon of big band jazz with Urbana, Saturday Feb. 14 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

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W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

urbansenior fill February calendar Downtown

Enjoy an afternoon of Tea and Trumpets with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre.

This charming matinee series offers popular, lighter classics, woven together with stories about the composers and their music. Take a world tour through music with Mozart’s Prague Symphony, Mendelssohn’s ode to the Scottish Hebrides islands, Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, Grieg’s Norwegian Dance No. 2 and Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole with conductor Gordon Gerrard. Christopher Gaze, artistic director of Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, hosts and narrates the performance. Colleen Venables is guest violinist. Tea and Trumpets comes complete with tea and cookies served in the lobby one hour before each concert, compliments of Tetley Tea and LU Biscuits. Tea and Trumpets takes place Feb. 5 from 2 to 3:15 p.m. at the Orpheum, 601 Smithe St.

Already One: Reflections in Honor of Thomas Merton’s Centenary. Beer, wine, coffee, non-alcoholic drinks and edibles will be available for purchase.

Everyone is welcome. For more information, call 604-988-8835.

6260 Killarney St. The cost is $58.50 per couple.

While the Killarney location is new, the program is ongoing at Kitsilano, West End, Marpole-Oakridge and Hillcrest community centres.

Mount Pleasant

Killarney

Mayor Gregor Robertson and council invite the public to a Black History Month launch celebration this Friday, Jan. 30 from 2 to 3 p.m.

Enjoy a celebration of community and cultural performances as the mayor proclaims February as Black History Month in Vancouver. The accomplishments of the Honourable Justice Selwyn Romilly will be recognized, and Canada Post will unveil the 2015 Black History Month stamps. A light, catered reception will follow. This event, open to all ages, takes place in council chambers on the third floor of city hall, 453 West 12th Ave. The celebration is free, but registration is a must by emailing rsvp@ vancouver.ca to attend. twitter.com/sthomas10

“I drink beer whenever I can get my hands on any,” Thomas Merton once confessed. “I love beer, and by that very fact, the world.”

This Saturday, Jan. 31, the Thomas Merton Society of Canada and friends will celebrate what would have been Merton’s 100th birthday with beer and jazz. To that end, they’re hosting a “Beerthday” party in celebration of the American author, poet, social activist, monk and mystic at Our Town Café, 245 East Broadway, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. At 8:30 p.m., local Merton scholars Donald Grayston, Judith Hardcastle, Angus Stuart and Ron Dart will read from their contributions to the 2015 testimonial volume We Are

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KITSILANO BETTER AT HOME An art exhibit on now at Oakridge Centre includes works from the Arts Bridge Competition.

In partnership with the Alzheimer Society, Killarney Community Centre is offering a new session called Minds in Motion, which combines a fitness class with social programs for people experiencing early stages of memory loss.

Participants are welcome to attend on their own or with a friend, family member or caregiver. A certified fitness instructor conducts the exercise section of the program while a facilitator ensures participants are welcomed and assists with social interaction and involvement in activities, guided by the needs and interests of the participants.

The sessions take place Thursdays from 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. now through March 26 in room 203 at the community centre,

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

Community

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Park board chair John Coupar spoke Monday as city tree planter Travis Warnyca replaced the last of 17 young maple trees cut down by vandals along West 29th Avenue sometime on Jan. 6. PHOTOS DAN TOULGOET

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Vandalized maple trees replaced CENTRAL PARK

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sthomas@vancourier.com

Maple murder

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Seriously, did whoever cut down those 17 young maple trees on West 29th Avenue truly believe the park board wouldn’t replace them?

If it was up to me they’d be replaced with 34 maple trees just to prove a point, but it’s not, so the board is planting another 17 in their place at a cost of almost $10,000. To date, the identity of the person who took what is suspected to be a power saw to the trees sometime during the night of Jan. 6 is still a mystery — as is why it costs almost $10,000 to plant 17 trees.

The truncatum maples, cut off at about 50 centimetres above the ground, were planted by the park board on the city boulevard in November 2010.

According to the board, the matter is still under investigation by police. A multi-lingual leaflet was

delivered to nearby homes last week appealing for assistance in catching the perpetrator.

Meanwhile, park board staff finished replacing the trees Monday afternoon accompanied by NPA chair John Coupar, acting manager of Urban Forestry and Specialty Parks Howard Normann and urban forestry crews.

The replanting supports the City of Vancouver’s Urban Forest Strategy, which provides tools for growing and maintaining a healthy, resilient urban forest for future generations. The park board asks that anyone with information contact the Vancouver Police Department at 604-717-3321 and quote file No. VA15-3826.

Trans swim win

The trans-inclusive public swim at Templeton Pool was such a hit it will continue weekly now through March with support from the park board’s Trans and Gender Variant Inclusion Working Group.

It was former Vision Vancouver commissioner Trevor Loke who pushed

to get the ball rolling on this much-needed and ongoing change to policy.

The swim has been ongoing unofficially since 2010, when it was first organized by trans advocates, but the city and park board recently made it official and threw their support behind it.

The swim was organized to provide a safe environment for people to access the pool, change rooms, washrooms and showers without fear of discrimination based on their gender identity.

On Jan. 11, trained staff were at Templeton to help educate patrons regarding gender sensitivity, answer questions and help direct people to the appropriate change rooms, washrooms and showers. In April, the park board accepted 77 recommendations, including new signs, staff training and updated community programming, to make public spaces more welcoming and inclusive of trans and gender queer individuals. The signs at Templeton Pool no longer use traditional male and female symbols for washrooms and change rooms.

Instead the signs reflect function and are open to all. The weekly swim takes place from noon to 2 p.m. on Sundays, beginning.

The working group hopes this is just the first step in expanding the program to other community centres.

Feeling flexi

Is getting in shape on your list of New Year’s resolutions?

Well, the park board is here to help. New users can pick up a park board Flexipass and get access to 21 fitness centres, 13 pools and eight arenas.

Enjoy lunchtime workouts, skating with friends, family time at the pool or run indoors on a rainy day. From now through Feb. 8 you can also pick up a 30-day Flexipass for $30. Flexipass purchasers will also receive an extra month free when they purchase a three-month pass and $50 off a five-session personal training package.

There are some restrictions, so drop by your local community centre or visit vancouver.ca for more information. twitter.com/sthomas10

W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

1 Jan. 28 to 30, 2015 1. In One Man, Two Guvnors, British playwright Richard Bean updates the Italian comedy Servant of Two Masters and sets the farce in 1963 Brighton, England, complete with gangsters and a live skiffle band. Directed by David Mackay, the Arts Club production runs until Feb. 22 at the Stanley. For tickets and info, call 604-6871644 or visit artsclub.com.

2. Ruby Slippers Theatre presents two English translations of French-Canadian plays Aprés Moi and The List Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 at Studio 16. Christian Begin’s Aprés Moi is six versions of the same story set in a motel, while Jennifer Tremblay’s The List is a monologue about a woman who feels guilty about the death of her neighbour.

Details at rubbyslippers.ca.

3. The Four on the Floor String Quartet hosts its third annual String Fling Jan. 28 and 29 at the Biltmore. Each year the group invites a few special guests to join them on stage and perform several songs with string accompaniment. This year’s collaborators includes Jim Byrnes, Ryan Guldemond, Dustin Bentall, Parker Bossley, Hannah Epperson, Dominique Fricot, Dan Moxon and Tonye Aganaba. Tickets at Red Cat, Zulu and hipcity.ca. Details at facebook.com/FourOnTheFloorStringQuartet.

4. Oxford, Mississippi’s Bass Drum of Death brings its enjoyably knuckledragging amalgam of primitive blues and lo-fi garage rock to Fox Cabaret, Jan. 29, in support of the duo’s latest fuzzed out and sweaty album Rip This. Local howlers No Sinner opens. Tickets at Zulu, Red Cat and bplive.ca.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

Arts&Entertainment

Motherhood issues

Comedic play birthed from firsthand experiences STATE OF THE ARTS Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

Motherload features intimate stories about motherhood as experienced firsthand by its actors.

YOUR HEALTH

Actress and producer Emelia Symington Fedy cocooned herself and her baby in her car during a miserable downpour Friday morning to talk to the Courier.

Her baby started crying mere minutes into the inter-

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view, but Symington Fedy remained unfazed.

“He’s number two,” she said. “So I’m comfortable with him crying.”

Coping with motherhood the first time around was another story.

Symington Fedy had just lost her mother and found herself wandering up Commercial Drive with her newborn feeling isolated, sad and alone while other mothers and babies buzzed around her.

So she gathered other actor-mothers with different parenting styles together and asked them to share their innermost thoughts and experiences. They raised money to pay for childcare and spun their intimate stories into a show, Motherload, which premieres at the Cultch and runs Feb. 3 to 21.

Motherload is meant to be a Mom’s the Word for a new generation.

“It’s been exactly 20 years, to the year, of their first show,” Symington Fedy said of the acclaimed and long-running Arts Club production. “It’s time for a new one.”

There weren’t 1,500 models of strollers to peruse 20 years ago and no apps alerted parents about their children’s stage of development.

“All of our husbands have this rule that you can’t ask Dr. Google,” Symington Fedy said. “You go ‘child,’ ‘rash,’ ‘face,’ and it says, like, ‘death.’”

Symington Fedy, accomplished stage actor Jody-Kay Marklew, comedic actor Juno Rinaldi, film and TV actor Sonja Bennett and another mother who had to drop out because her child has a rare disease, spent a year-and-a-half creating Motherload, while pumping milk and holding babies on their breasts and laps.

Courtenay Dobbie, artistic director of Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, directed and choreographed.

Motherload highlights the bittersweet experience of discovering a profound sense of placement, or home, and mothers’ struggles to maintain their identity.

“My truth about being a mom in this piece is that I’m a much better mom when I’m working,” Symington Fedy said. “To accept that, in this day and age when being so there for your kid is so highly valued, I felt like a bad mother for the first year.”

Marklew is her opposite.

“She is the quintessential blissed-out stay-at-home mom that you’re just like f*** you, how can you be so happy and content,” Symington Fedy said.

There are scenes about what a sleep-deprived mom would love to scream at her whiny child, another about sex and motherhood, “or how there isn’t any,” and what it’s like to realize that your son’s behavioural problems mirror your own.

The four women refer to their own childhoods, their relationships with their mothers and how they were as daughters.

“As my first son was being born, my mom died,” Symington Fedy said.

“The one time in my life when I wanted my mother, and she wasn’t there, and I had to learn how to parent without her, and how I didn’t do a very good job in the beginning.”

The production includes actors’ home videos and photos, old and new.

“Our projection designer, Cande [Andrade], he’s working with all these photos we have of our mothers and so you see us and then you see our mothers on this big 12-by-16 [foot] screen,” Symington Fedy said. “We’ve seen him, playing with the projections, crying. It’s emotional to see these huge images of family on the stage.”

Symington Fedy says comedic actor Rinaldi shares the tale of her severe post-partum depression in a way that’s simultaneously hysterical and heartbreaking.

It’s the hysterical that Symington Fedy hopes will be the takeaway.

“My main goal in this show is for moms to laugh their asses off,” she said.

“And to go, ‘Oh these women are saying everything that I was terrified of being. Oh, so if they’re willing to say this, I’m not so bad.’”

She’s confident Motherload will be worth securing a sitter, washing your hair and donning a spit-up-free shirt.

“You only make a few special plays in your life,” said Symington Fedy, who also co-runs Chop Theatre.

“And I know this is one of them… I know when we’re on stage, we’re going to be savouring every minute, and then we go home to our messy houses and the poop all over the floor.”

For more information, see thecultch.com. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

Bullet Catch hits its mark

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Magic and philosophy collide in moving theatrical target THEATRE REVIEW Jo Ledingham

joled@telus.net

I am the perfect target for Rob Drummond’s magic show, Bullet Catch. Skeptical but willing to be amazed and even when an illusion is revealed — as Drummond does with one of his tricks (but only after asking if we want to know how it was done) — I’m still amazed.

Drummond plays on our impressionability in the subtlest ways: no cape, no “Ladies and Gentlemen” hyperbole, no rabbits popping out of hats. In a plain woolen vest and with a disarmingly low-key approach, this charming Glaswegian plays it down. And he’s just so nice. How many illusionists have you wanted to hug at the end of the show?

Oh, but there is hype and you can see it coming. “Bullet Catch” is a famous illusionist’s trick going back to 16th century France when a magician caught a bullet in his hand but was clubbed to death in 1613 with his own gun by his angry assistant.

Drummond, through letters and references to a badly botched Bullet Catch during which the performer was fatally shot by his assistant, makes sure we realize how dangerous the trick is. Tales of actual fatalities abound and are generally due to defective firearms.

Progressing through various

Rob Drummond explores the notion of free will in his theatrical magic show Bullet Catch.

less dangerous illusions, Drummond builds to the climax: the moment when an audience volunteer who has been with him on stage since moments after the start of the show, dons eye and ear protection and squeezes the trigger. Bam. Our volunteer, Jojo, was so enthusiastic and willing. Do I think she really was a volunteer and not a set-up? I do. Either that or Jojo deserves an Oscar for her performance. Eventually, however, Jojo became quite fearful; she had, she said, shot a deer before but never a man. She could, as Drummond pointed out many times, back out; apparently, some volunteers, completely overwhelmed by what Drummond has asked them to do, have walked away. Our plucky Jojo hung in there.

But you just know that gun isn’t loaded with real bullets. And you just know

that Drummond, whom you’ve come to like, isn’t going to die tonight on stage.

Tickets have been sold for the remainder of the run; think of all those cancelled tickets. It’s Arts Club artistic managing director Bill Millerd’s nightmare.

So what’s going for this show if not the scary possibility you might see someone actually die on stage?

Performance. Fun. Curiosity. And a conversation about free will. Drummond doesn’t believe in it; Jojo thought maybe sometimes she did.

His argument — and it may be Philosophy 100 — is that everything we do, we do because of events that preceded the present, extending all the way back to our own birth, over which we exercised no free will.

Hence, there can be no free will. That he’s onstage and about to be shot by a complete stranger is, Drum-

mond would argue, not an act of free will. It might be crazy but he can’t really be blamed for it. And even if we don’t have free will, what we do have, he says, is human connection and Drummond really connects.

“Arguably one of the most dangerous and daring illusions that a magician can attempt,” says Wikipedia; legend says at least a dozen men have died attempting it. But if you like magic, relish the thought of spending 75 minutes in the company of a truly engaging fellow with the sweetest brogue this side of Glasgow and are curious about the Bullet Catch, exercise your free will and check out this show, presented as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

For more reviews, go to joledingham.ca Bullet Catch runs until Feb. 7 at the Revue Stage. Details at to artsclub.com.

A new point of view.

CBC News Andrew Chang

Vancouver Weeknights at 5 & 6 pm cbc.ca/bc

A19

@cbcnewsbc

A20

THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, JA N UA RY 2 8 , 2 0 1 5

Sports&Recreation

GOT SPORTS? 604.630.3549 or mstewart@vancourier.com

By Megan Stewart

BC Sports awards for best of 2014

Dan Hanoomansingh helped pioneer a mentoring program to improve officiating in the Thunderbird minor hockey association. He supervises novice referees and now can’t watch a hockey game without assessing the refs, even in the NHL. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

For a good ref, add confidence Mentoring program helps retain teen officials

Megan Stewart

mstewart@vancourier.com

During an atom rep game at Kerrisdale Cyclone Taylor Arena on a Friday night, a shot deflected over the head of the referee and grazed the out-of-bounds netting before bouncing loudly off the glass and back onto the ice.

Two coaches on competing benches shouted at the officials, the oldest who’d only turned 14 a week earlier and was only a few years older than the rep players on the ice.

From across the rink, the coach whose team was on defence threw his arms in the air. “It hit the net!”

He was right. But since the whistle wasn’t blown, play continued.

Watching from a corner of the near-century-old rink, Vancouver Thunderbirds Amateur Hockey Association assistant referee in chief Dan Hanoomansingh made a few notes. He was supervising the game as part of the T-Birds three-year-old mentoring program to help develop novice officials.

Linesmen and referees with only one year’s experience are more effective than older peers who haven’t been shadowed on the ice or supervised from the stands, said Hanoomansingh. The attrition rate has also dropped slightly, mean-

ing fewer teens are being driven away from the job.

After the peewee game (in which the first period lasted 20 minutes, eight minutes too long) the referee and two linesmen were told what they did well — one made a deliberate wash-out sign at a clutch moment when fans were certain there was a goal — and what they didn’t — failing to stop play when the puck went out of bounds, for example.

“That’s primarily your job to catch that,” Hanoomansingh, 21, told the two linesmen. He praised them and also explained the reasons behind his feedback. “I don’t want him [the referee] looking up into the sky for the puck. He’s watching the players and the puck went out right behind him.”

Jeffrey Hemlin, 14, started officiating games last season.

Also a bantam rep player for the T-Birds, the Grade 8 student at Hamber secondary signed up to wield the whistle to make a little cash.

As a 12-year-old player, he said he saw a referee cry because of abuse from the stands and benches.

The pressure and outrage can be overwhelming, but Hemlin said a good official will withstand the burden of making a ruling — like other decision-makers.

“You have to be unbiased. It’s almost like being a judge,” he said, adding that it takes work to cope with the heated scrutiny of spectator criticism and still stay focused. “You just have

to face it head on. That’s what they teach you.

“Let’s say there is a trip and you didn’t see it. The fans will go crazy, the coach will go crazy. You have to stand there and take it. You didn’t see it. You have to fight for you.”

Some of the worst heckling Hemlin heard came after what he considered a “dirty” hit from behind and for which he ejected the peewee player.

“Don’t crack under pressure — you have to stand for your call,” he said. “Some coaches get angry, some yell at you. It’s pretty harsh.

“They teach you, if a coach ever yells at you for something like that, you go up to them and say, ‘I don’t want people getting injured. Do you?’”

Trevor Boudreau created the Western Canada Referee School after a 13-year career as a WHL and AHL official and is also the referee in chief for the T-Birds, where he works with Hanoomansingh. He said the passion Canadians feel for hockey is an important aspect of the country’s national winter sport.

“Hockey is a game of emotion so we don’t want to take that emotion out of the game. That’s what makes it the best game in the world,” said Boudreau. “That’s where the confidence comes in for referees to know they’re doing the right thing.

Having an adult — a parent or maybe even one you’ve had as a coach — tell you

you’re wrong when you’re 12, 13 or 14 years old, is very difficult.”

Teaching confidence begins with knowing the rules of the game, said Boudreau.

Applying that knowledge, effective communication skills and correct on-ice positioning are the backbone to good officiating. But little can prepare a young referee for personal attacks and verbal abuse, which are some of the reasons the Vancouver Island Amateur Hockey Association earlier this month proposed banning all spectators from all minor games over the one weekend.

In the worst cases, spectators wait outside the locker room to berate officials or launch racist, personal attacks, or even “been told to go die,” as one 17-year-old told the broadcast news last week.

The Thunderbirds mentoring program is unique in the province for an association its size. Thousands of players are scheduled in as many as 140 games a week, including league matches and tournament play.

Keeping a roster of good referees is crucial.

Hemlin, a second-year TBird official and bantam rep player, said confidence goes a long way to maintaining control in the rare occasion a spectator or coach loses it.

“In reffing, you have a lot of power,” he said. “You can kick people out. It’s a good thing to learn.” twitter.com/MHStewart

Eight Vancouver representatives are among the finalists for the 49th annual B.C. Sport Athlete of the Year Awards.

The annual honours recognize outstanding amateur athletes, teams, coaches and officials for their performance in 2014. Each finalist was nominated by their provincial sport organization, high school, college or university. Each of the 19 categories has three nominees.

For Male Coach of the Brian Ellis Year, Langara men’s basketball coach Paul Eberhardt is in the running against UBC athletics coach Marek Jedrzejek. The Falcons basketball team is also nominated for Team of the Year.

St. John’s senior Jordan Lu is nominated for the Male High School Athlete of the Year while golfer Doug Roxburgh and orienteering racer Brian Ellis are nominated in the Master Athlete of the Year.

UBC swimmer Coleman Allen, who’s from Spokane, Wash., and volleyball left-side hitter Lisa Barclay, originally from Manitoba, are both nominated as the University Athlete of the Year.

The winners will be announced March 12 at the Fairmont Vancouver.

Falcons double up for 120-point average

The Langara Falcon’s men’s basketball team averaged 120 points per game in back-to-back wins over the Kwantlen Eagles Jan. 22 and Columbia Bible College Bearcats Jan. 24. The Falcons lead the Pacwest with 89 points per game and are also the best in the league defensively for allowing only 66.7 Langara Falcon Max Neumann PHOTO BY LAURA MAY points per game.

The wins extend Langara’s streak to five, which includes a decisive 75-62 victory over Vancouver Island University Jan. 16. VIU had been undefeated against all CCAA teams until Langara took them down.

Over the Eagles this weekend, Jitinder Lohcham scored 26 points, netted eight rebounds and blocked two shots in a 114-66 victory. The Falcons combined for a season-high 34 assists in the lopsided win. Visiting the Bearcats in Abbotsford, Langara recorded its most single-game points this season in a 126-75 win to reach an overall PacWest record of 10-2. They put up 63 points in the first half and followed that with 40 points in the third quarter. They topped their season-high assist tally from the previous game with 36 against the Bearcats.

Elliot Mason impressed with 20 first half points on his way to 25 overall and seven assists. Lohcham dominated the paint with 20 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots, and Vancouver College alum Garrett Ling-Lee had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

“We really got back to our fast break fundamentals,” said head coach Paul Eberhardt. “We ran hard and moved the ball very well and as a result we scored a ton of points.”

The Falcons trail VIU (11-1) by two points and are tied for second place with Quest University (10-2). Langara hosts Quest 8 p.m. Jan. 30 to determine who jumps in front.

The women’s team isn’t faring as successfully. They sit last in the Pacwest in eighth sport with a 2-10 record. Undefeated Quest leads the standings, followed by VIU (9-3) and Douglas (8-4). They host Quest at 6 p.m. Jan. 30.

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